Return to Terabithia
by booksarefriends
Summary: When Marnie Johnson's sister dies in a car accident, she and her family move to the small town of Lark creek. Will Marnie be able to heal after the death of her sister? Will she ever make any friends? Could she possibly be, the new Queen of Terabithia?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! This is a fan fiction that I decided to write, It's called Return to Terabithia. Please review, favorite and follow. :) have a great day!**

The car was silent as we drove up the driveway towards our new home. Why did it have to be so old, and muddy, and old?

"It's not that bad." My dad said from the drivers seat.

You know I should probably tell you why I'm here and who I am.

Hi. My name is Marnie Johnson. I am 11 years old. I once had a normal life; I lived in New York with my family. I had the best friend in the world, my older sister.

A little over a month ago a came home from school in a good mood. I had made a friend, and for me that was a massive achievement. As soon as I walked into the house, I knew that something was wrong. It turns out that my sister had been hit by a car on the way home from school. I couldn't believe it. _My _sister. She was only 14! I never thought anybody could hurt Cora. Cora was everything that I wasn't. She was clever and good looking, she got good grades and she could make friends with anyone. She was just one of those people.

I was lucky though. I got to see my sister before she died. I held her hand and I told her that I loved her. She couldn't say anything back though. The damage that the car had done to her meant that she couldn't move or talk. I knew she could hear me though.

That was two months ago. Now there was a gravestone in the cemetery, round the corner from our apartment that said, 'Cora Leigh Ann Johnson, Lost but never forgotten.'

If you have ever lost somebody close to you, you can understand the way I feel. I can't look at anything beautiful without thinking about her. That was why my parents moved us away. So we could have a new start. Now we were a family of four. Me, my Dad, my mum and my 9-year-old brother William. My parents took whatever house they could get at short notice for a good price. That's how we ended up standing in front of an old farmhouse in a small country town called Lark creek, that had been abandoned ever since the old owner had to be moved to a nursing home.

"Should we go inside?" I asked. Since my sister died, I had become the rock of the family. Everyone relied on me to be strong. I didn't cry in front of them and I tried to act as normal as possible. I was now the one who cooked the meals. I was the one who tried to get William to eat and go to school, and act normal.

My mum nodded and we all climbed out of the car. While pulling out our suitcases and dragging them towards the house, I saw a tear roll down my mums face when she saw the beautiful garden. I opened the door and walked inside. Trying to act like I would have a few months ago I yelled, "I call dibs on the best bed!"

I ran up the stairs and found the room I wanted the most. It was small. Much smaller than the other rooms in the house, but I liked it that way. It was warm and cozy, but definitely in need of redecorating. Once I was sure that nobody could hear me I lay down on my bed and cried. How was I going to survive in this place. I wasn't a country girl! The only thing I like about the country was Taylor Swift! I was going to get in trouble at school like I always do, I was going to get lost on our now HUGE property and I wasn't going to have Cora to help me through it.

The one thing I liked about this house was its story behind it. It wasn't like I knew what that story was, but I was hoping to find out. My first move was to talk to the houses original owner. I had down some research and I found out what nursing home she was at and her name. Her name was May belle Aarons.

** So in case you didn't notice, Marnie has moved into the Aarons old farmhouse. Please review, follow and favorite!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. Thanks to Richard kayser for reviewing. I hope you guys like this story and that you review, favorite and follow.**

_Beep, beep, beep._

Agh. I rolled over a hit the snooze button. I wanted to go back to sleep but I couldn't. I knew that I'd have to go get William out of bed and convince him to eat something.

_Poor little guy._ I thought to myself. I climbed out of my bed and got changed. When we moved we threw out nearly all our stuff. We were also told that there was already furniture at our house so we didn't have to bring anything.

After I had changed into my skinny jeans and a t-shirt I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I pulled my blonde hair into a pony tail and went to my parent's room.

"Come on. Mum, Dad. You have to get up."

I saw my Dad shake my Mum gently before climbing out of bed.

Then I went to William's room. This was going to be harder.

"William? You've got to get up." I said as I made my way towards his bed. _He hasn't even been here twenty four hours and his room's already a mess._

"No!" He groaned, "I don't want to get up!"

"You have to. Can you imagine if you stayed in bed all day, and you didn't get to explore?" He pulled his pillow over his head and ignored me.

"Come on. Up you get." I told him as I pulled him out of bed and half carried, half dragged him down the stairs. When I finally got him to the little dark kitchen, I placed him at the table, with my parents, and then moved to the kitchen to make breakfast.

The kitchen was silent. I placed four bowls of cereal on the table and then tried to convince William to eat. When every body had eaten at least half there bowl, I let them go up stairs to get dressed.

_ONE HOUR LATER._

I didn't want to go outside. The world shouldn't look that beautiful without Cora in it. It was a hot day outside and it made everyone sleepy. Mum was sitting at the table with my Dad talking about financial problems. William was on the couch, watching the ceiling. I was up stairs trying to redecorate my room. I hung up a few of Cora's old posters and I put all my stuff away. That was as far as I went before I got bored.

I pulled out my pink laptop and searched for more information about the house. First I typed in miss May Belle Aarons, and it came up with a birth notice from and old newspaper. I couldn't tell much about the house from this, just that this had been a family home. Then I typed in the address and it came up with another newspaper article.

_Yesterday afternoon the body of a young girl was found on the property of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Aarons. The girl, Leslie Burke, went missing next door earlier that day. She was found in the river at the bottom of the property. It is believed that she was swinging across the river on an old rope when it broke. She fell hit her head and drowned…_

Oh my goodness! Now I was excited. This house really did have a good story behind it.

I shut my laptop and got up to go tell Cora… Then I remembered. I sat down on my bed. It was still such a shock. She died nearly two months ago, and I still forget that she's gone. Now I felt really depressed. Cora was gone, The rest of my family were so upset that they didn't want to do anything and I had to go to school tomorrow.

School had always been torture for me. The students hated me, the teachers hated me even the janitor hated me! It was just a talent of mine, I instantly made enemies of anyone I met. I didn't want to go to school but I knew that I couldn't make life any more difficult for my Mum and Dad. I wish Cora was still here!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Please review and favorite and follow!**

"Come on William! You have to get up!" I yelled as I tried to get my little brother out of bed. He had grown so much recently that it was really hard for me to lift him out of bed.

"I don't want to go to school and I don't want to get up!" He yelled back.

"Yeah, well neither do I! I guess that makes two of us." I said as I gave up sitting down on the edge of his bed.

"If you don't want to go, and I don't want to go… Then why are we going?!"

"One: Because it's against the law for us not to go. Two: Because we can't make Mum and Dad take care of us and three: Because They are already expecting us!"

I sat there with my head in my hands, thinking for a moment before I heard him ask softly. "What are Mum and Dad doing today?"

"I don't know." I admitted. "I think Dad's going into town to look for work. I tried to persuade Mum to as well but I don't think she wants to."

"Why would God do this to us?"

"Do what?"

"Let Cora die?"

"I don't know."

After that, I managed to get William out of bed by promising him that when we came home I would play with him and his remote control car.

Within an hour we were standing outside in the fog, waiting for the bus.

I was nervous, we both were. This was the first time we had gone back to school since Cora died. When I told William that Cora was gone, he was in shock. He hadn't been able to sleep or eat or move for days. He and Cora were very close.

My thoughts were disturbed by the sound of a bus coming up towards the house.

Leaning forward I saw the shape coming out of the fog. Hearing the noises coming from it I knew that it was the school bus. It stopped in front of us. It looked old, really old.

The doors creaked as they opened and I dragged William on nervously. Could this thing really hold two more people? Nearly every seat was already taken.

"Ahhh, Newbies. This should be fun." One kid hissed as we walked passed. I turned around and gave him a look. Whenever I used this expression, Cora would say 'If looks could kill…' I sat down in a seat near to the back of the bus. That way I could watch everybody. William came and sat down next to me.

During the time it took us to get to school I quickly figured out the social order.

There was one group of about five kids who were the bullies of the group. Who thought they could do whatever they wanted, everybody else is their prey. Well everybody except one guy. He sat by himself and stared out the window looking as if he didn't want anything to do with everybody else. _That makes two of us _I thought to myself.

He had tan skin and black hair and a look on his face that showed people he wanted to be left alone.

I hopped of the bus and pulled William over helping him get half a peanut butter sandwich of his back (somebody had thrown it at him). We still had a while until school started so we went to the front office where a lady in a blue suit told us where our classes were. She took William to meet his teacher. I hugged him tight before letting the lady lead him to his new class. _I hope his okay._ I thought to myself. _What if he gets bullied. That's the last thing we need. What if he hates it here!_

When the lady came back I was ready to run.

"Nervous?" She asked when she saw my expression.

"A little." I admitted while I followed her up the hall to my classroom.

The walk was to short. She knocked on a door that had a poster on it saying yr 6Gale.

_Here goes nothing._

"Come in." a polite voice answered.

I walked into the room turning back to see if the lady in the blue suit was coming as well but she was already gone. _I guess I'm on my own then._

"Um… hi!" I told my new class nervously.

Some of the students smirked. The teacher gave them a look.

"Hello. We were just waiting for you!"

_Please don't let her make me introduce myself!_ I prayed.

"Class, this is Marnie Johnson. Please make her feel welcome and show her to her classes." _Phew._ "Marnie, you can take the spare desk behind Abby."

I walked towards the new seat. I could tell that everybody was watching me.

Blushing, I slid into my seat and started to day dream.

After school, I was going to phone the nursing home and find out when I could go and visit Mrs. Aarons. _I wonder what she's like?_

"Hey newbie! My names Lizzie!" The girl behind me whispered enthusiastically.

"Hi Lizzie." I whispered back. I was sure I sounded really rude but once she got to know me she wouldn't want to be my friend anyway.

"Sit with me at lunch?"

"Umm. Sure."

"Lizzie? Marnie? Do you have something you would like to share with us?"

Lizzie shook her head and I went back to staring out the window.

The first half of the day went past quickly. At lunch I let Lizzie lead me over to where her and her friends Lily and Sarah sat. Lily, Sarah and Lizzie were nice but they where gossips. Which was kind of good and kind of bad. On the good side I got to learn about the students at the school, on the bad side I knew that they would gossip about me behind my back. I sort of blanked out until I heard them start dissing some kid.

"Yeah, He is such a freak!" Lizzie said in a squealing voice.

"I'm sure his not that bad." I didn't even know who they were talking about but whoever it was I felt bad for them

"But he is!" Lizzie protested." Apparently his Dad ran of with another woman and his Mum didn't want him because he was so weird, so she sent him here to live with his Grandpa. He doesn't talk to anybody and he sits by himself. You should really look out for him, if you annoy him he'll beat you up. See! He is really antisocial." She gestured over to where the boy I had noticed on the bus was sitting by himself.

I was surprised. I thought girls only acted like this on TV.

"Maybe you should leave him alone and stop picking on people!" I told her, my voice getting louder and louder. I knew I was going to explode. The pressure of every thing at home had built up and now I was going to overflow. I knew people were watching us but I didn't care.

"Just because he has a bad life and he sits by himself doesn't mean his a freak!" I yelled. "Maybe you should stop putting other people down so you can make yourself feel better!" Everybody stared at me in shock. I turned around and walked of holding my head high. I was proud that I hadn't hurt anybody. As I passed the Boy he looked at me giving me a look of thanks.

I couldn't wait to get home!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Please review, favorite and follow.**

"Hello, My name is Marnie Johnson." I told the nursing home receptionist.

"Hello, my name is Vanessa."

Now I felt stupid. I didn't know what I was going to say.

"Umm. Hi Vanessa. I would like to know… Umm I wanted to visit a woman in the nursing home. Do I have to, like, make an appointment or anything?"

"You don't have to make an appointment but we usually make sure that the person knows you are coming to visit. Who was it you wanted to visit?" She told me kindly.

"Ms. May Belle Aarons." I told her.

"Um. Well we don't have a May Belle Aarons here, but we do have Mrs. May Belle Casey. I am pretty sure Aarons was her maiden name."

"Oh okay."

"Can I ask, why you would like to visit her?"

"Yes. She used to own my house before us and I wanted to hear some stories."

"Oh. Well I'm sure she would love to have a visitor. She doesn't usually have people over. When would you like to come in?"

"Would tomorrow after school be okay?"

"Sure. I'll tell her that you are coming."

"Thanks bye." I pressed the button on the phone.

I pulled out my homework and tried to concentrate, but all I could think about was what had happened at school. I knew now that I had to avoid those girls. They where rude and mean and they were the type of girls that loved to pick on girls like me.

I really hoped that William had had a better day than I had, if he hadn't it would be a lot harder to get him out of bed tomorrow morning.

When it was time, I moved to the kitchen to make dinner. In the room next door I could hear my parents talking about work and how they were going to afford food for the next few weeks. For dinner, we had spaghetti. I've never liked spaghetti much but everyone else did and it was easy to make.

"How was your day William" I asked, breaking the silence at the dinner table.

"It was okay."

"Did you make any friends?"

"No." _Like sister like brother. _I thought to myself. "How about you?"

"Average."

"Make any friends?" He asked smirking. He already knew the answer.

"No."

After I had cleared the table, William and I played with his car.

"What time do I have to go to bed?" He asked cautiously.

"Hhhmmmm. Does 8 sound okay?"

"Sure."

By the time I had put William in bed I was tired. Too tired to do anything so I went to bed as well. I shut my bedroom door so I couldn't hear my parents fighting and I lay down on my bed. _Night Mum and Dad_, I told myself sarcastically. They were far to busy to tuck us in at night. They used to tell us that they came in when we were asleep but I never believed them. Before I knew it. I was asleep.

_Beep Beep Beep ._

_Stupid Alarm!_

I grabbed the clock and pulled the cord out of the wall. I rolled over and climbed out of bed. I got dressed quickly, not even looking at what I pulled out of my draws.

I yanked the brush threw my hair a few times before pulling it into a ponytail.

I brushed my teeth and washed my face before waking up Mum and Dad before going to William's room.

I was surprised when I saw that he was already up and dressed.

"Someone's in a good mood." I said as I moved over to the curtains and opening them.

The light out side was very bright and I had to wait a few second for my eyes to adjust.

"You want breakfast?" I asked

"Duh!" He yelled as he ran downstairs and into the kitchen.

It was only when I sat down with a bowl of cereal when I remembered; I had to go to the nursing home after school. I had looked it up and seen that the nursing home was only a ten minute walk from school. I would walk there and then Dad would pick me up on his way home from work. This plan was easy. Everything had pretty much sorted itself out; the only thing was that I was kind of scared. I didn't want to go by myself and I knew that William wouldn't want to go with me.

After we had finished our breakfast we went out to wait for the bus.

When it arrived we climbed on nervously. I walked towards the back of the bus and sat down where I had been yesterday. Looking around I started to recognize people from yesterday. I saw Lizzie and her posse up the front of the bus talking to some boys.

_I bet they are telling them all about how weird and ugly I am._

I saw the boy that Lizzie had been dissing. He saw me looking at him so I looked away.

When I turned back, expecting him to have looked away I saw that he was still looking me. When he saw that I had seen him, a grin started to grow on his face. I smiled back.

The bus stopped outside the school and we climbed off. I turned around and ran towards the school hoping that Lizzie or her friends wouldn't spot me. I threw my backpack in my locker and ran inside the class room and sat down at the desk.

I was safe, for now. I hadn't noticed that the classroom was empty except for me and Mrs. Gale.

"Hello Marnie, You're here early."

"Yes ma'am."

"So… how do you like the school so far?"

"It's good."

"I'm glad you think so. I heard what you did yesterday, and I think it was very brave."

"Really?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah. Not many People your age have the courage to stand up to Lizzie and her friends"

I looked at Mrs. Gale curiously. Was this a joke? Did a teacher actually think something I had done was good? Mrs. Gale was very pretty. She had long Curly Black hair and big brown eyes. She had a kind face that nearly always had a smile on it. She was very young for a teacher and she always tried to make things more interesting. I think that is why people enjoyed her lessons so much.

"Umm. Thank you."

"Tell me a bit about yourself." She said, putting down her pen.

"Well, I'm 11 years old and I just moved here from New York. And I have a little brother called William, He's 9."

"Do you have any hobbies?"

"Not really."

"Have you done anything exciting since you've been here?"

"No, but hopefully I will."

She smiled at me. "Hopefully."

She went back to marking the work she was doing and I pulled out a book.

When the bell rang, the classroom filled with students. I kept my head down and tried not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Hello everyone. This lesson we are going to learn about the difference between homophones and homographs-"

It was going to be a long lesson.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. Hey guys. Thank you to the people who reviewed, for reviewing. On with the story…**

I've always loved birds. I love how they are always happy and energetic. They aren't violent either, in stead of fighting they fly away. I wish I could be like a bird but it's not really who I am. I have always had a temper and when I get hurt or frightened I nearly always end up in a fight. I listened to the birds sing as I ate my lunch by myself.

For lunch, I had made myself a ham sandwich and it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I ate it anyway because I was hungry and I knew there wasn't much food at home so I shouldn't waste any. Class was long and I was tired so I was glad when lunch came.

I raised my head slightly so I could see Lizzie and her gang gossiping.

Yuck. I had only been here one day and I had already made an enemy. I looked down and tried to concentrate on my lunch. I was scared about visiting May Belle tonight. What if she didn't like me or she didn't want to share her stories. I wouldn't like it if some random kid walked into my house and asked for my life story. I mean what if-

"Umm. Hi! Can I sit here?"

I looked up and saw the boy. His long dark hair hung in the way of his eyes, he grinned at me.

"Uhh."_ Stupid! Stupid! way to make yourself sound smart Marnie! _"Sure."

"Thanks" He answered.

I moved over so he had room to sit on the bench. He sat down and started to eat his lunch. I t looked a lot nicer than mine did.

"Umm. So…" He said breaking the awkward silence.

"Sooo…" I repeated.

"So…" A voice from behind us said. We spun around to see Lizzie and her gang watching us with amused expressions on their faces. "Aww. The two freaks are in _Wuv_!" She said in a mock baby voice. I turned around and started to eat my lunch like nothing was happening. I knew how to deal with this sort of stuff, William used to tease me all the time about liking boys. Not that I liked this kid or anything.

In an effort to ignore Lizzie, I turned to the boy and said. "Hey! My name's Marnie. You?" He looked confused for a second before catching on.

"Duke. Duke Brewer." He stuck out his hand and I shook it. "So… You just moved here right? Where did you move from?" He asked I heard Lizzie sigh behind us.

"You Love birds are _so _cute!" I knew she was just trying to get me to snap so I kept ignoring her. Duke was obviously smart. He knew what I was doing straight away.

"Me and my family moved her from New York a few weeks ago."

"Wow. Never been to New York. What's it like?"

"Well…" I tried to think of something to say. Most people already knew what New York was like. "It's big… and loud and… busy."

"So. It's a lot different to here than."

"Yeah."

"You must be sad to move away." He was kind of right. I was sad to leave my life that I had there. I didn't really miss New York. I needed a new start and moving away would give me that. Lizzie sighed loudly, indicating that she was bored. She walked away loudly with her posse following her.

"Sorry about her." Duke apologized. "She seems to follow me."

I laughed, "Yeah, me too."

"So are you enjoying the wonderful and luxurious Lark creek?" He asked, grinning.

"Yes. I like… I like the old houses." It was true.

"Yeah. They are pretty cool. Lark creek's a very… different place. I moved here a few years ago so I know how you feel. How is your family liking it?"

"I don't actually know." I admitted. "My brother seems to like it but I think my parents are having trouble with work." He nodded.

"How old's your brother?"

"He's 9. Do you have any siblings?"

"No. It's just me, well that I know of. I've always wanted a brother. What's it like?"

"Believe me, you don't want a brother. They're annoying."

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Yeah it isn't."

There was just something about Duke. He was easy to talk to. It felt weird to have a normal conversation. I hadn't had one in a long time. By the time the bell rang it felt like Duke and I had known each other for years. I would have felt happy, except I kept remembering about tonight. The thought was scary. What if she didn't like me?

"Do you want to come with me tonight to visit someone?" I blurted out without thinking.

We were walking to class after lunch.

"Uh. Sure." Duke answered looking surprised.

"Good. I'm walking there after school. Are you sure your Grandpa won't mind?"

"Nah! He works until late anyway. I'll just have to bring my bike."

We entered the classroom and I walked over to my desk. Duke sat down on the other side of the class he grinned at me before giving the teacher his attention.

_After school_

"So… Where exactly are we going?" Duke asked as we walked down the corridor and out of the front of the school.

"Marnie! Where are you going? Marnie?"

We spun around to see William running up to us.

"William! You gotta get on the bus! How are you gonna get home?"

"Where are you going?" He asked confused.

"I'm going to go visit someone. Dad knows and he's going to pick me up. Quick! Run!"

Giving us a confused look, he ran back towards the bus stop and we kept walking.

"That's my brother William." I explained. "So as I was saying we are going to visit a lady in the nursing home. She used to own my house." He looked interested enough.

"I really appreciate you coming with me. I was kind of scared of going on my own." I admitted.

"Have you met her before?" He asked.

"Nope."

"Really? So you don't know her but you are going to visit her anyway?"

"Yep."

"You're weird."

"Yeah. I know." I sighed.

By the time we got to the nursing home, I knew a lot about Duke. I knew that he hated sports lessons because apparently, the teacher runs his lessons like a boot camp, and he loves keyboarding because the teacher lets them talk during class. He has a black and white cat called Blossom who he loves dearly and he has always wanted a little brother.

We walked up to the front of the nursing home and I walked up to the front of the desk.

I turned around to see Duke tying up his bike outside.

"Hello! You must be Marnie." The lady at the front desk said. "Hi! I'm Vanessa."

"Hi Vanessa." I told her. She smiled at me and came around to the front of the desk.

"I'm glad you came." She said to me as she started to lead me down the corridor, it was light and open with lots of art on the walls and there was old people everywhere.

"May belle doesn't usually get visitors. She's the last in her family, except her younger sister, but she lives on the other side of the country…" She kept talking about May belle and the other people who lived here.

I turned around to see Duke run in past an old woman on a Zimmer frame. Vanessa frowned at him by the time he caught up with us.

"Sorry." He apologized.

We arrived at a plain blue door with the numbers 173 on it.

"Here it is." Vanessa said coming to a stop. "Have a good time!" she walked off in the direction of the front desk.

Nervously, I looked at Duke and he smiled at me encouragingly.

I raised my fist to the door and knocked carefully three times.

"Come in!" I heard from inside.

I opened the door and peered in. There was a plain looking bed in the corner of the room and a lady was sitting around a little table that had been laid out with food and drink.

She stood up when she saw me and she came to the door and grabbed my hand.

"Hi! You must be Marnie." She said enthusiastically.

She let my wrist go and looked me up and down.

"You're very pretty." She said to me smiling.

"Thank you. So are you."

She laughed, a soft, musical laugh. "Maybe once, but certainly not anymore.

There was an awkward silence before May Belle asked, "Who's this?"

She looked over at Duke, who was standing in the doorway awkwardly.

"This is Duke." Marnie told her.

"Why don't you come inside Duke? They brought me some cake and tea for you, but I thought you would prefer hot chocolate, so I got you some." Marnie didn't mind tea but she was grateful that May Belle had bothered to try and make them happy.

She led Duke and Marnie to the small table and they sat down. She then cut them each a piece of cake and poured them all a drink.

"So, you two go to Lark Creek Elementary, right?" she asked them before taking a sip of her tea. They both nodded. "I used to go there as well, back when I was a little girl." She smiled at the memory before looking at the children. "It's probably changed so much." She sighed.

There was a silence before Marnie asked. "What was it like when you were younger?"

May Belle took another sip of her tea and thought for a moment before saying.

"It was… tough. The social order there was horrible. There was one group of bullies in particular who tried as hard as they could to make life difficult for other people."

She looked at the children and they looked back at her. "Why are you two here?" She whispered. Marnie was suddenly nervous.

"I moved into your old house, and I wanted to know it's past."

May Belle looked thoughtful for a second, "You moved into the farm?" she asked. Marnie nodded. "Do you own the property as well?" Marnie nodded again. "Have you explored the forest?" Marnie looked at Duke before shaking her head.

"Good. Stay out of the woods. Okay?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Here is chapter 6. I hope you guys enjoy it. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. :)**

"You're going to go into the woods aren't you?" Duke asked as soon as we stepped outside. It had been a great afternoon of talking, laughing and exchanging stories.

Before they left, May Belle had made them promise to come back soon.

Marnie had learnt a lot about the house. My Belle's parents had built it and her family lived in it. She had three sisters and one brother growing up.

"Of course." I answered. He nodded and looked up thoughtfully.

It was raining heavily and neither Duke nor I seemed to care.

"Can I come too?" He asked.

"Sure." I answered smiling.

"When?"

"Saturday." I answered simply.

He grinned. "I'll be there."

Duke waited with me until Dad pulled up.

"Bye Marnie!" He yelled as he rode down the rode on his bike. I laughed and climbed into the car.

"Who' that?" Dad asked as we pulled out of the car park.

"That's Duke." There was an awkward silence. "So…"

Dad kept his eyes on the road.

"How was your day?" I asked desperately trying to make a conversation.

"It was okay. How 'bout you?"

"Nothing special."

The rest of the car trip was silent. By the time we pulled into the driveway, I was ready to escape the eerie silence of the car. There was a time when car trips with Dad were noisy and fun, now they were the opposite. I walked inside slowly, depressed from the way things now were.

"Marnie!" William yelled running over to me. "What's wrong?" He asked. I looked up at his face and gasped.

"What happened to your face?!" I asked as I pulled him into the kitchen and moved to the freezer. He had a huge lump on his head that was already starting to bruise. I pulled out some ice and pressed it into his hand. He just stood there staring at me, confused; I lifted his hand up to his head so that the ice was on the bruise.

I sighed. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" He protested. "It wasn't like I told him to throw his shoe at me!"

"Who threw there shoe at you?" I asked moving over to the dishes that had started to pile up next to the sink.

"I don't know his name, but he sits at the back of the bus with all his friends and he also threw his sandwich at me."

"What did he look like?" I demanded.

"Why?" William asked, once again confused.

"I want to know so I can find him and tell the school." Or kill him. I added to myself.

"You don't need to do that. It's okay." William said taking the ice of his head and grabbing his school bag from the lounge room.

"How is that okay?" I asked pointing to his head.

William opened the bag. "It's okay coz… I got his shoe." He grinned triumphantly and held out his prize to me. I cracked up.

"What are you going to do with it?" I asked after I had finished laughing until I started to cry. I smiled at me.

"I made a list and at the moment I've got three options. I'll either burn it, bury it or flush it down the toilet."

"Why don't we bury it and leave him a map so he can find it again?" I suggested.

"Yeah! And put clues!"

After laughing for a minute, I started to make dinner and William moved onto his homework. By the time I got into bed, I felt happy and content.

"Goodnight Cora." I whispered to myself imagining her telling me to avoid the bed bugs just like she used to.

**So sorry its short guys! I felt bad about not updating for ages and I decided that a short chapter is better than no chapter. Please review!**


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